Plastic Surgery

Where did the term "plastic surgery" come from? How much plastic is used in elective, beauty surgery? When I think about plastic surgery I think of breast, lip, and buttock augmentation. There's that joke about how Pamela Anderson can't get too near a heat source or she'll melt or at least, her augmented body parts will. I had a surgical plastic implant when I had my hernia repaired a few years ago. Will this be recognized in a few years from now as a potential health threat, like mercury in teeth fillings?

On a related but slightly different topic, Environmental Working Group (EWG), in partnership with Mt. Sinai School of Community Medicine and Commonweal, released the results of the most comprehensive evaluation to date of multiple chemical contaminants in people.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Public Health Reports, the study results offer an up-close and personal look at nine individuals whose bodies were tested for 210 chemicals – the largest suite of industrial chemicals ever surveyed.

The web-presented report is available at www.ewg.org. It found:

Subjects contained an average of 91 compounds, most of which did not exist 75 years ago.

In total, the nine subjects carried 76 chemicals linked to cancer.

Participants had a total of 48 PCBs, which were banned in the U.S. in 1976 but are used in other countries and persist in the environment for decades.

A second study will be released Jan. 31 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It provides statistical data relevant to Americans’ body burdens of 116 chemicals.

“The CDC has studied individual chemicals in a multitude of people; our study examined individual people for a multitude of chemicals,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG vice president for research. “The CDC’s work helps us assess exposure levels for each contaminant across the population; our study begins to document the complex reality of the human body burden—what we call the ’pollution in people,’ ” said Houlihan.

She added: “Both studies are long overdue, and both reveal disturbing gaps in scientific understanding of environmental contaminants and in our system of regulatory safeguards.”

Body burden testing that has been conducted and made public to date often results in swift action by government and corporate leaders. Following a medical study showing high mercury levels in the blood of patients whose diets were high in mercury-contaminated fish, the State of California recently sued five grocery chains to force them to put labels on these products in the seafood aisle.

When Scotchgard was found in virtually all Americans, 3M Company was forced to change the formula.

A majority (55%) of Americans mistakenly believe that the government tests chemicals used in consumer products to make sure they are safe, according to recent opinion research conducted by Washington Toxics Coalition.

The federal government does not safety-test industrial chemicals, nor does it require manufacturers to submit testing data.

“People are loaded with chemicals,” said EWG Senior Vice President Richard Wiles. “Some are known carcinogens, and many are banned. There are some about which science knows virtually nothing when it comes to potential health effects.

We need a modern, common sense approach to identifying and protecting the public from possible health effects from long-term exposure to low levels of multiple chemicals.”
www.ewg.org

It's time for me to do some plastic surgery in my life; cutting plastic out of my life increases my health and the planet's.

Plastic Makes You Fat

Oct. 1999 Mice exposed to bisphenol A -- a compound originally made as a synthetic estrogen but now used in the making of plastics -- had an overall earlier onset of puberty and increased risk of obesity, researchers report in the October 21st issue of the journal Nature. The investigators note that bisphenol A can be found in baby bottles, toys, food storage containers, computers, and other household items. But more research is needed to determine if the compound has similar effects in humans.

Dr. Frederick vom Saal and colleagues from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, exposed fetal mice to bisphenol A at levels similar to that which humans are routinely exposed to. Exposure induced early puberty and resulted in a body weight that was 20% greater than in non-exposed mice.

``We're not offering an answer concerning effects in humans with these findings; instead, the findings pose a question regarding human health. This study should serve as a guide for human research,'' vom Saal added.

SOURCE: Nature 1999;401:763-764.

Leave No Plastic Behind - Maine

Leave No Plastic Behind - Maine
Reduce, Reuse, Record

Pre-project Artist Statement

My buddy Devon sent me an announcement of his involvement with Leave No Plastic Behind in Portland, OR. I checked out the website and emailed Cheryl to find out if there was a group in Maine I could join. Not one group on the east coast! Becca and Meg and I decided we were ready to start our own group. I think this is the way many fun projects begin: a good idea and some friends.

"Reduce" and "Reuse" are familiar concepts for me. I've been re-forming plastic items for several years now.

"Record" is new for me. This will be the first time I'll systematically document my art process, show others How To do what I do, and tell folks my thinking about what I'm doing.

One of the greatest joys of my life is making art. To agree to take on turning my Single Use Plastic (SUP) into art isn't a hardship but an interesting challenge. My first ideas have all revolved around crafting SUP into useful items--a second life for SUP! Approachable. Teachable. Sellable.

Arts and Craft items are wonderful but I also want to artistically explore ideas of durablity/disposablity; the plasticity of my personal human body and the collective human body; the concept of Place (as well as Home, and Land, and Security) in the current global trash economy. I'll probably get a few more ideas as this thing unfolds but here is basically where I'm starting from.
Beth Eisen
10/1/08

Plastic Women

Leave No Plastic Behind Maine
Entry #1

How many tons of plastics do the Health and Beauty Industries produce each year? I'll have to research this.

As women are the primary market for health and beauty products, how much plastic in the world are we directly in control of?
How do I get beauty and health care products without buying a plastic container? I use sunscreen that comes in a plastic tube. Aspirin is in plastic bottles. My face cream comes in a glass jar with a plastic lid. Shampoo is in plastic.
What are the alternatives? I've made my own face creams and shampoos when I was a kid. It was fun to do once or twice. I'm not sure I want to do this for any amount of time. I'm glad I have enough of the essentials to get me through this next few weeks of this project!

These questions lead to another set of questions: What forms of plastic are contained in the products I use? More research to do. I know that many moisturizers contain petroleum jelly. Heck, when I was young we had a big tub of petroleum jelly in the bathroom and it was used for everything from slicking down hair to glossing lips.
How many plastic variants are in hand cream? hair gel? conditioner? What are they?
How do these plastics effect my personal health and the health of the planet? More research.

I've started an Art Project: altered romance novels. I'm saving the plastic from my health and beauty products and will turn them into romance heroine paperdolls for inclusion in these 1950's romance novels that I've altered.